The Day of the Doctor - Redux
by The Lonely Centurion
Summary: What happens when we change one single detail? What happens if there was no hidden incarnation and the Eighth Doctor was the one to end it all as the entire fanbase thought for 7 years. Coming to you in random chunks, "The Day of the Doctor (Redux)"


_First Published – 2014_

Based upon "The Day of the Doctor" and "Night of the Doctor" By Steven Moffat _©BBC 2013  
_  
_Original Series broadcast on BBC television  
__Format ©BBC 1963_

_'Doctor Who' 'TARDIS' etcetera are the trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are not being used for profit. All original characters,_  
_creatures and settings are created b y the author. Please do not use without __written consent  
_  
_All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written consent from the author, except b y a_  
_reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.  
_  
_The Moral Right of this Author is Questionable at Best._

_This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any_  
_resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.  
_  
_Cover Design by TheLonelyCenturion – 2014_

Space is vast, it's cold and dead. It's pain, disease and filth wrapped in an inky black darkness. Civilizations thrive on balls of rock floating in the black. They pray war never comes to them. Their prayers are unanswered, for like death, the Third War in Heaven comes to us all. A war to burn all creation fought between disgustingly brutal Time Lords of Gallifrey and their foes, the Daleks.

"Help me, please. Can anybody hear me?" called a voice over a comm band. There was no one to her the transmission, no other ships left intact.

Lieutenant Cass thrashed her hands over and over again onto her console. Her blonde hair slipped loose into her face, she didn't even pause to move it. She had no time. Her ship was crashing, the starboard nacelle was breaching and life support was still funct-, never mind, life support was gone as well. Not that a ship about to crash into the surface of a planet needed life support Cass thought grimly to herself. Amongst the cacophony of alerts and warning lights the Automated Computer came to life.

With a cool, pleasant and thoroughly unnatural voice it said, "Please state the nature of your ailment or injury."

"I'm not injured, I'm crashing. I don't need a doctor," the young woman snapped at the computer.

"A clear statement of your symptoms will help us provide the medical practitioner appropriate to your individual needs," the Computer responded.

"I'm trying to send a distress signal. Stop talking about doctors," Cass shouted.

A tall man stepped into the cockpit behind her. He was wearing a long, battered green frock coat and had a dirty dark blue cravat tied around his neck. "I'm a doctor. But probably not the one you're expecting. Where is the rest of the crew?"

"How did you? Doesn't matter. Teleported off," Cass replied quickly, hoping for a miracle. Maybe this stranger could get her off the ship before it impacted.

"But you're still here," the Doctor pried innocently.

"I teleported them."

"Why you?"

"Everyone else was screaming."

The Doctor's face lit up with a smile. It fitted his face well. "Welcome aboard," he said.

"Aboard what?"

"I'll show you," he answered as he pulled her away from her seat in the cockpit.

The Doctor pulled the young Lieutenant through the winding corridors of the doomed ship. Fires were breaking out and coolant tanks were bursting throughout the walls.  
"Where are we going?" Cass shouted as she was pulled through the soon to be wreckage of an Alliance Space Craft.  
"Back of the ship."

"Why?"

The Doctor paused and turned around. Looking the young woman in the eyes. "Think it through, the front crashes first."

He started running again, his hearts pounding as approached his craft.

20 meters. He could see it now, it was in a small cargo hold.

15 meters. The familiar blue box was almost in reach.

10 meters. Just a bit more.

5 meters. The bulkhead crashes closed in front of him, cutting off the Doctor and Cass from escaping.

"Now why did you do that?" the Doctor muttered to himself as he fumbled through his pockets.

"Emergency protocols," Cass chimed in.  
"Emergency what?" the Doctor turned on the young blonde woman and pulled out a slender red tipped metal rod from his pocket.  
"Found it!" he said with a grin, "Now, what's your name?"

"Cass, my name's Cass," the young woman answered.  
"You're young to be crewing a gunship, Cass," the Doctor made conversation as he pointed the rod behind him at the door. It began to make a whirring chirping noise.

"I wanted to see the universe. Is it always like this?"

"Loud and dangerous. If you're lucky it is."  
The bulkhead snapped open revealing a large wooden box. It was a deep navy blue and was cover with scorch marks. It had tiny glass windows on its surface and all of them were dirty and cracked. The sign on top of it said, "Police Public Call Box."

Cass stared at the improbably small craft. It was no bigger than an escape pod. There was going to be no comfortable way off of this ship.

The Doctor looked at his newfound friend and sensed her uneasiness. "Don't worry, it's bigger on the inside," he said with a charming smile.

"What did you say?" Cass shouted, "Bigger on the inside, is that what you said?"

"Yes. Come on, you'll love it"

"Is this a TARDIS?"

"Yes, but you'll be perfectly safe, I promise you."

"Don't touch me!" Cass shouted as she backed away from the madman in green. She saw it now, he was dressed like a soldier. The big lace up combat boots, how could she not have noticed before.

"I'm not part of the war," the Doctor pleaded, "I swear to you, I never was"

"You're a Time Lord," she spat venomously, hate seeping through the words.

"Yes, I'm a Time Lord, but I'm one of the nice ones."

"Just, get away from me!"

"Well, look on the bright side. I'm not a Dalek," he retorted.

"Who can tell the difference anymore?"

Cass slammed a panel next to the bulkhead, and it crashed closed. It sealed the Doctor and his TARDIS on one side and her on the other.

"Cass!" the Doctor shouted.

She sneered, "It's deadlocked. Don't even try."

"Cass, just open the door. I'm trying to help," the Doctor begged, "I'm not leaving this ship without you."

The lieutenant smiled at the Time Lord through the glass window on the bulkhead, "Well, you're going to die right here then. Best news all day."

The Doctor started pounding on the door as the young girl sat down on the floor of the corridor. She was preparing to die, saying prayers she'd said dozens of times before battles. She was preparing to meet her gods. The Doctor continued to shout her name over and over again until the ship impacted on the surface of the planet.

Then there was silence.

"Cass!" the Doctor shouted as he opened his eyes suddenly.  
He couldn't move. He arms were bound behind him and he was propped up against a stone alter. Candlelight washed over him as an old woman in red robes stepped into the room.

"If you're speaking of your companion, she's certainly dead. No one could have survived that crash"

The Doctor smirked childishly, "I did."

The woman crouched down next to him. Her wrinkled face close to his young one, "No, Doctor, you did not. We restored you to life."

The Doctor paused, "Hang on a tick. Is it you? Am I back on Karn? You're the Sisterhood of Karn, Keepers of the Flame of utter boredom."

The woman straightened her posture, "I am Sister Ohila, and we are the keepers of eternal life. Mock us if you will, but our elixirs can trigger your regeneration. Time Lord sciences are elevated here on Karn."

The Doctor looked up at her, "No thanks, I'm comfortable in the latest model. Wouldn't do so hot as a used car salesmen would you? What I want to know is why you did this for me? Why did you bring me back?"

Ohila cracked her bony fingers, "Simple Doctor, you have a larger part yet to play in this War that threatens all reality. You are the only hope left"

Slipping his hands from the rope bonds, the Doctor pushed himself to his feet, "It's not my war. I will have no part of it."

"You can't ignore it forever."

"I help where I can. I will not, I must not fight."

"Because you are the good man, as you call yourself?"

"I call myself the Doctor."

"It's the same thing in your mind."

"I'd like to think so."

Sister Ohila straightened her robes as she walked to the far end of the room. Slowly she said, "Cass"

The Doctor's hearts beat faster, "What did you say?"

Ohila smiled as she hit a nerve, "Cass. So young, and yet so much wiser than you. She knew there is no escaping the battles that are to come. If she were alive," the older woman let the sentence hang in the air.

"She would rather die than accept my help. I'm a Time Lord, everything she despised rolled up in one," the Doctor finished sorrowfully.

"No," Ohila shouted, "She would beg for your help, just as the Sisterhood begs for it now. The Universe stands on the brink. Will you let it fall?"

The question was thick in the air and the Doctor's mind raced. Who was he? Did he have the right to take lives, but if he did not, how many more would perish. Do the ends outweigh the means?

He'd seen things, things no one should see. The rise and fall of Faction Paradox, the birth of the War TARDISes and the attempted abduction of his friend Compassion, Time Lords who had abandoned humanoid form just to fight an Enemy from their future. Romana, his very best friend, turned cold and ruthless by the tiding of war. And now it was happening again.

He finally looked up. "The first thing these ears heard was Puccini," he said softly to himself.

"No more," the Doctor said slowly, "There will be no more suffering because of my fear, because of my cowardice."

"Very good, Doctor," Ohila crooned, "You have made the right choice for the Universe."

"There isn't any need for a Doctor anymore! I am the Warrior!" he shouted.

The Sister smiled with her mission complete, "Doc," she quickly corrected herself, "Warrior, your TARDIS is outside."

The Warrior followed slowly behind the red robed woman. He whispered quietly to himself, "Sam, Fitz, Compassion, Anji and Trix; my companions and friends may you forgive me for what I will do. Miranda, I beg for absolution. And Cass, I salute you."

The Warrior walked through the monastery, and into the courtyard. There sat his TARDIS. He stepped through battered threshold into the console room. It's stone walls melting away as the TARDIS changed with its master.

The Warrior set the coordinates.


End file.
